James F. Lawrence: Willie Horton ad was blemish on Bush's legacy

Thursday

Dec 13, 2018 at 10:36 AMDec 13, 2018 at 10:36 AM

It’s ironic that one of the few blotches on the impressive legacy of George H.W. Bush, who touted a “kinder, gentler’’ America during his presidency, was the exploitation of the nation’s racial divide to help win him the White House.

Granted, it was Lee Atwater, Bush’s campaign chairman, who actually did the dirty work. Nevertheless Bush went along with the racist Willie Horton television commercial that helped turn the 1988 campaign in his favor by portraying his opponent, Democrat Michael Dukakis, as a weakling on crime. The ad featuring Horton, a gruff-looking black man who raped a white woman while on weekend furlough from prison, marked one of the starkest and most startling examples of dog whistling — coded messaging to white voters — in modern politics.

While Atwater years later apologized for pouring gasoline on the nation’s racial fears, the practice has become widely used in Republican politics. It was evident in this fall’s gubernatorial races in Florida and Georgia, where black Democratic candidates Andrew Gillum and Stacey Abrams were defeated by narrow margins after campaigns marred by racial overtones. The dog whistles became so obvious that they seemed more like megaphones.

I don’t believe for a second that Bush, the nation’s 41st president and generally thought of as a good man, condoned the racial politics that have become all too familiar in these polarized times. Bush’s vote for a Democrat over Donald “The Divider” Trump, after all, spoke volumes — though it was no secret that 41 took umbrage to Trump’s belittling of his son, Jeb, the former Florida governor, on the campaign stump.

I just wished that Bush Sr., whose one-term presidency is being lauded for decency and statesmanship, would have been much more forceful in abhorring racial politics during his White House years and his retirement years. If only he’d shown the same deference to racial justice that he demonstrated in violating his vow against new taxes to reduce the federal deficit. Maybe demagogues wouldn’t be as brazen as they are today.

Just maybe, by now, the GOP would be a lot different. There probably would be far more African Americans in its ranks, for instance. But given the current political climate and the party’s perceived hostility toward African-Americans, understandably few blacks are willing to follow pioneers like Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice.

Where was the outrage within the Florida GOP when DeSantis, on the day after winning the party’s nomination for governor, told a national television audience that the state shouldn’t “monkey this up” by electing Gillum? Look too at how Trump singled out the GOP's lone black female congresswoman, Mia Love, for a public flogging after the midterms.

Meantime the GOP closed ranks as Trump campaigned for both DeSantis and Cindy Hyde Smith, who won a U.S. Senate seat in Mississippi after making racially charged comments that evoked flashbacks of the state’s horrid racist past. And let’s not forget how Trump exploited fears by tweeting a video on Halloween that blamed Democrats for allowing an undocumented Mexican immigrant to kill two California deputies — straight from the Willie Horton playbook.

The prevalence of we-don’t-give-a-damn behavior in the Trump era is becoming increasingly troubling as too many voters look the other way.

George H.W. Bush was on to something when he tried to place the nation on a path of decency and civility during his White House years. For the nation’s sake, hope that more such leaders will emerge in the Republican Party in particular to not only pick up Bush’s mantle but stay focused on the finish line.

James F. Lawrence is director of Gainesville for All (gnv4all@gmail.com).

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